Victoria to overhaul penalty laws after on-duty paramedic stabbed in face, neck

Victoria will make jail mandatory in all circumstances for people who assault emergency services workers, in response to an attack that left a paramedic in hospital with stab wounds to his face and neck.

The assault in Reservoir on Thursday morning ended only after a good Samaritan stepped in.

Since 2018, injuring an emergency worker has been a category 1 offence in Victoria, meaning courts must impose a prison sentence – in this case at least six months – for those found guilty. The maximum penalty for this crime is five years in jail.

However, in late February, this masthead revealed a man whose attack on a paramedic left her in hospital avoided the mandatory jail term because the paramedic was not treating a patient when she was attacked.

After Ambulance Victoria called the attack “appalling and unacceptable” and the ambulance union called for harsher laws, Premier Jacinta Allan announced law changes on Thursday night.

“Victims and union representatives have raised the issue of loopholes in the law, potentially undermining the protections emergency workers deserve,” Allan said.

“We commit to fixing it. We will ask the Victorian Law Reform Commission to review the definition of ‘on duty’ and ensure there are no loopholes.”

The victim, a 20-year originally from the Northern Territory, is in Royal Melbourne Hospital’s emergency department in a serious but stable condition after the incident, which happened in Melbourne’s north about 11.20am.

Police and Ambulance Victoria said the first responder was getting coffee at a cafe in Reservoir, and not treating a patient, when a man got out of a red car and stabbed him.

The man then fled in the same car, they said. Police made an arrest in the same suburb a few hours later.

The mobile intensive care ambulance paramedic’s injuries were not life-threatening, but Ambulance Victoria chief executive Jordan Emery said that made the situation no less serious.

He said the attack was random and unprovoked, and took place while the victim was getting out of his vehicle.

“It is completely unacceptable that people who spend their lives caring for others – who give so much to care for their communities – continue to face violence on a daily basis,” Emery said outside the hospital on Thursday afternoon.

“We need to spend time reflecting on how we have come to a place where more than 1000 paramedics are assaulted every single year in Victoria. It is absolutely disgraceful.”

Flanked by a dozen paramedics, Emery said the problem was increasing across Victoria and that drug and alcohol abuse weren’t the only explanations.

“There will be paramedics tonight who will be scared to go to work, and rightly so, because of this appalling violence,” he said.

Ambulance Victoria data shows there were 1045 incidents against paramedics reported in the year to June 2025, nearly 6 per cent of which resulted in injury or illness.

Emery also said the injured paramedic was in “remarkably in good spirits” given his injuries, and that he had only recently become a father.

The victim’s family, who remain at his bedside, declined the opportunity to speak at the same press conference.

Emery said a bystander had intervened to stop the offender, which allowed the paramedic to perform first aid on himself – despite bleeding profusely – until his colleagues arrived.

“We extend our sincere gratitude and thanks to that bystander,” said Danny Hill, secretary of Victoria’s Ambulance Union. “We hope that we get the opportunity to provide a more fulsome thanks directly.”

It is understood the bystander wasn’t injured.

Emery also acknowledged the victim’s coworkers, “who had to render care to their colleague with such horrific injuries”.

“It’s extremely distressing for them,” he said. “They are shaken, and understandably so. And yet so many of our people have come to expect it, and I can’t labour that point enough.”

Police arrested a 32-year-old man over the incident at a different street in Reservoir at 1pm. The man is being interviewed.

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